I live in China and am looking for a meditation retreat anywhere in Asia with a focus on samatha. I've never been on a meditation retreat before but I've been meditating 1-2 hours a day for the past 9 months and have made a lot of progress. I was considering Pa Auk Sayadaw's monastery in Myanmar but would like to consider some alternatives. Pa Auk looks good although somewhat dogmatic.

Alternatively, any meditation retreat where I can practice samatha without pressure is fine, even if it's not the focus. I just want to be honest in interviews about what it is I'm doing.

Found a couple of nice resources for retreats in Thailand and other countries in the region:

http://littlebang.org/wp-content/upload ... -20101.pdf
http://www.littlebang.org/retreats-2/

Be Happy!

Even if dogmatic, Pa Auk still gets high marks, and sometimes learning to deal with the dogmatism and seeing Why they got all dogmatic about some point or attitude or whatever has its merits, as they might not be totally crazy, and it might actually lead to good things at times, not that you have to stay dogmatic, but trying it on and seeing how it works is sometimes interesting and educational.